3 Points/Dollar: AGR Mastercard Purchases (ended 12/31/18)

[George K]

My World Card posted the points plus the two point bonus on the 18th of December - I expect to get a similar bonus for money spent between the 18th and the 31st as well. I used to pay my real estate taxes for next year.

My Platinum Card posted points plus the two point bonus today (closed on the 28th). That card goes back into the drawer. I used to pay my estimated 4th quarter income taxes a few weeks ago.

Yeah, I paid the fee for using the cards to pay taxes, but was a lot cheaper than buying points.

 

[Rail Freak]

48 Hrs. is up & I called Amtrak back. This time I asked for Customer Relations. Although very nice , the rep. said they were only for settling problems with actual travel! She transferred me  to AGR. 

The AGR agent informed me that my situation was still PENDING! However the rep. was extremely pleasant & sounded as though she really wanted to help me solve the issue. She asked for all the info that I could give her. So, I went into my spiel for the umpteenth time!!! She even wanted BofA's case #s so she could pass all the info along to the Operations Dept.,handling the case!

This seems to be the end of my options!!!!!  :unsure:

 

[cpotisch]

Inconsistency my friend.  Not sure we can be friends since every comment I make is "corrected" by you.  Sorry I am not consistent enough for you. 

I wasn’t saying anything about you being inconsistent. I was saying that the two pictures there, produced by AGR (or BoA or whoever) are inconsistent!

 

[scrollmaster]

It doesn't even read like you were addressing him personally. Not sure why he took it that way.

 

[me_little_me]

That seems pretty clear to me, so in my opinion, BoA is either completely incompetent or dishonest.

I've known that for over a year now since my wife and I started having trouble with BoA. I basically gave up on them since then, refusing to use the card (I closed  my pay card account after the first incident) except for the direct Amtrak travel charges. We stared using them as soon as I found out about the 3X deal but as of today, that use is over and they go back in the dresser. I can't wait until Amtrak changes to another vendor instead of BankOfSleaze.

 

[Rail Freak]

Another Billing Cycle has come & gone. Once again , no Bonus Pts.! Once again, I called AGR & once again, they say they'll pass it along to a supervisor! :wacko:  I guess I'm just S... Out of Luck!!! Did everyone receive their points?

 

[cpotisch]

Another Billing Cycle has come & gone. Once again , no Bonus Pts.! Once again, I called AGR & once again, they say they'll pass it along to a supervisor! :wacko:  I guess I'm just S... Out of Luck!!! Did everyone receive their points?

We haven't received ours. We are going to fight them on this. :angry:

 

[scrollmaster]

We haven't received ours. We are going to fight them on this.

I've been receiving my points fine on both the card I have and my wife card. But this came in this morning and if the base points are one point, seems like I'd be missing a few on my bonus points for it to be three points on any purchase.

 

[jebr]

Anything from January 1 - 5 (not sure if purchased or cleared) wouldn't count towards the 3 per dollar bonus. That's probably the discrepancy.

 

[scrollmaster]

You are right..

 

[Dan O]

Mine came in fine today for the period through 12 31 2018.

 

[JayPea]

Mine came in right as scheduled today.

 

[Rail Freak]

OK, I can't let this go! I called AGR this morning. This agent allowed me to send an e-mail to her with the Link that was on PRR 60's original post. She then came back to me stating her supervisor is taking this to the "Powers That BE"!?!?? What is different about this call is, she gave me her supervisor's name & said for me to give him till Friday, then call him if I hadn't heard from him.

I hope I'm not boring everyone with my situation, I just hope this might help others, if needed!!!

 

[cpotisch]

OK, I can't let this go! I called AGR this morning. This agent allowed me to send an e-mail to her with the Link that was on PRR 60's original post. She then came back to me stating her supervisor is taking this to the "Powers That BE"!?!?? What is different about this call is, she gave me her supervisor's name & said for me to give him till Friday, then call him if I hadn't heard from him.

I hope I'm not boring everyone with my situation, I just hope this might help others, if needed!!!

You're definitely not boring me. We are not going to stop until we get these ******* points, or at minimum get our sign-up fee back. :angry:

 

[Rail Freak]

You're definitely not boring me. We are not going to stop until we get these ******* points, or at minimum get our sign-up fee back. :angry:

When did you sign up for the card?

 

[cpotisch]

You're definitely not boring me. We are not going to stop until we get these ******* points, or at minimum get our sign-up fee back. :angry:

When did you sign up for the card?

I think we got it in late October?

The fact is, if BoA is going to lie about promotions or at minimum completely screw them up, to get us to purchase stuff, we don't want the card and we don't want to deal with them. Our Visa Amazon card offers a MUCH better deal than that standard 1 point per dollar on the AGR card, but since we thought we'd be getting 3 points per dollar until the end of the year, we made all our Black Friday purchases with it. Otherwise, we would have used the Amazon card.

So the fact that BoA was dishonest (or perhaps just completely incompetent) meant that we gave them all this money, and we got a worse deal. That is unacceptable.

 

[PRR 60]

I think we got it in late October?

Maybe that's the issue. If you got the card in late October, your first statement would not have been until sometime in November.  It is possible that the promo was only for "current cardmembers" and, having not received and paid a statement, maybe you were not considered a current cardmember at the start of the promotion on 11/5.  Just spitballing.

Regardless, I would suggest considering Hanlon's razor. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

 

[jebr]

Regardless, I would suggest considering Hanlon's razor. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Agreed. BoA definitely seems to lead a bit towards the "stupidity" column when I've worked with them. I had a dispute over something I purchased ($24) that wasn't working and the seller wouldn't respond, and BoA wanted me to have someone make a certified letter proving it wasn't working and how much it would cost to fix. I certainly get that generally that's what you need, but given the cost and the fact that I did have one response from the seller saying they'd send a replacement but never did, it seems to me that they should've defaulted towards granting the dispute without that sort of hoop. A call did rectify that, but it still left a weird taste in my mouth.

Our Visa Amazon card offers a MUCH better deal than that standard 1 point per dollar on the AGR card, but since we thought we'd be getting 3 points per dollar until the end of the year, we made all our Black Friday purchases with it. Otherwise, we would have used the Amazon card.

I'm curious how you're seeing that the Amazon card (at least the one through Chase - I'm not aware of any other ones) has better rewards for everyday purchases. Certainly it's better on Amazon-specific purchases, but everyday purchases only earn 1%, and even gas stations, restaurants, and drugstores only earn 2%. I generally value an AGR point, if I'm using them for trips I'd spend cash on otherwise, at around 2.5 cents. (They redeem for a bit more, but since there's certain discounts and restrictions on AGR points that aren't there as much on paid trips, I drop a bit because of that.) If you value AGR points at that rate, there's very few cards that will grant that on everyday spend. That said, I may still switch away from it as I may be traveling Amtrak less and other points are more closely aligned to future trip goals, but if you're able to redeem them on trips you would've purchased with cash anyways, the BoA AGR card has a very strong return on everyday purchases.

 

[cpotisch]

Regardless, I would suggest considering Hanlon's razor. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

That's why I said "or perhaps just completely incompetent", albeit in parentheses.

 

[cpotisch]

That said, I'm curious how the Amazon card has better rewards for everyday purchases. Certainly it's better on Amazon-specific purchases, but everyday purchases only earn 1%, and even gas stations, restaurants, and drugstores only earn 2%. I generally value an AGR point, if I'm using them for trips I'd spend cash on otherwise, at around 2.5 cents. (They redeem for a bit more, but since there's certain discounts and restrictions on AGR points that aren't there as much on paid trips, I drop a bit because of that.) If you value AGR points at that rate, there's very few cards that will grant that on everyday spend. That said, I may still switch away from it as I may be traveling Amtrak less and other points are more closely aligned to future trip goals, but if you're able to redeem them on trips you would've purchased with cash anyways, the BoA AGR card has a very strong return on everyday purchases.

Hmm, I didn't realize that you only get 1-2% back with the Amazon card. My parents just said that that card is a much better deal, and went from there. My guess as to why he said that is that we take Amtrak VERY rarely, so it may be months or sometimes even years before we can utilize those points. Meanwhile we order stuff from Amazon every week or two. I guess for them, the imminent usefulness of those points more than compensates for not receiving as many.

 

[jebr]

Hmm, I didn't realize that you only get 1-2% back with the Amazon card. My parents just said that that card is a much better deal, and went from there. My guess as to why he said that is that we take Amtrak VERY rarely, so it may be months or sometimes even years before we can utilize those points. Meanwhile we order stuff from Amazon every week or two. I guess for them, the imminent usefulness of those points more than compensates for not receiving as many.

That certainly could be. It's also a good deal for Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, especially if you're a Prime member (where there's 5% cash back earning on those purchases.) If you take Amtrak rarely (and especially if you'd earn points faster than you'd use them) it's not as good of a deal, especially since there's no promise that the points will still be worth what they are today 6 months or a year from now.

 

[Rail Freak]

I received my Platinum card when AGR switched from Chase & received the World card this past August!

 

[Rail Freak]

OK, I called AGR & talked with the supervisor handling my case. He told me that BofA has not gotten back to them yet but they (AGR) will contact them & try to find out why they had not issued my Bonus Pts. He apologized & said that AGR will  call me back today. He stated that he was trying to go through the proper channels BUT that he would see to it that I receive my Points, one way or the other!!! WHEW!!!!! Now let's see what the day brings! 

 

[me_little_me]

There is always this route:

https://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/index-file-a-bank-complaint.html

I'm not sure that's the group to which I complained about BoA's non-responsiveness to an issue. I do know that once I complained, BoA did finally contact me. They ended up, as "gesture of customer relations", refund the late fees and penalties, but never did admit that the ACH deposit which my credit union said arrived on time did in fact do so and admit fault.

 

[benale]

I received my last statement yesterday and I did not receive the bonus 3X the points. I received 4000 points. I used the card extensively in December. Booking eight hotel nights and $600 on a cruise gave me 4000 points alone. I called BOA and they directed me to AGR and nobody helped me. I should have received at least twice the points. What other recourse is there?